Thinking, Speaking and Representing Animals in Western Asia

In all societies, ancient and modern, animals have been of great importance to humans, being used for sustenance, transport, entertainment and emotional fulfilment. In the Ancient Near East, the cradle of domestication, the relationship between humans and animals was much stronger than it is today. The fascination animals exert on humans and the relationships between them are the subject of this book, the result of several workshops organized during the ASOR congress, where archaeologists, researchers specialising in iconography, historians, Assyriologists and archaeozoologists came together to exchange views and achieve a broader understanding of animals. Although our desired perspective is from that of the animal, in Mesopotamia the gaze is always the human one.

The book is divided in two parts: the first is devoted to small animals (birds, snakes, lizards and mongooses). The second part concerns animals worthy of the king, such as deer, lions and dogs. The articles cover the period from the end of the 3rd millennium BC to the Sassanid and Roman/Byzantine periods, with a particular emphasis on the first and second millennia BC.